The second issue of my weekly newsletter Slanting Nib & A Keyboard is ready and scheduled to be delivered in a few hours. I am completely humbled by the feedback and the response that the first issue received. I hope the second issue manages to keep the interest intact for the subscribers.
I am pretty excited with how this latest one has turned out too. Do check out the first issue and subscibe if you missed to do so earlier.
I paused at that last word in the title. I was so close to writing "hooked". But then I thought have they really sold the promise yet? No doubt, they are close. But, it's not a done deal yet.
Why is this service so enticing though? I mean it's just an email service. I don't even use the email that much. So why do I keep going back to HEY? It has got something to do with their promise. Of making me care even less for the email.
Every now and then I visit the "Screened Out" section to see all the mails I would have seen had I been using any other email app. And it is a mess in there. These emails never get filtered out with my existed setup. I am tired of setting all the filters in Gmail. It just doesn't work efficiently. Junk emails always end up reaching my inbox.
This hasn't been the case with HEY. Because they have decided on a sane default - everything screened out if not allowed earlier.
We ask every software to side with "opt-in" for every marginal aspect -- something that would split their users on whether they accept it or not. Why can't expect the same from our email service too?
And I haven't even gotten used to all the other features that I think are potential game-changers that many others have well documented.
However, with all said, I am conflicted. Do I want the clean experience so bad that I am willing to pay the cost? Do the junk email that I have got into the habit of deleting without a second thought bother me so much that I am willing to pay the cost? Can't I just manually screen-out the emails?
I have about a week to decide.
My definition of magic in the human personality, in fiction and in poetry, is the ultimate level of attentiveness. Nearly everyone goes through life with the same potential perceptions and baggage, whether it’s marriage, children, education, or unhappy childhoods, whatever; and when I say attentiveness I don’t mean just to reality, but to what’s exponentially possible in reality. (...) Why are people incapable of ascribing to the natural world the kind of mystery that they think they are somehow deserving of but have never reached? This attentiveness is your main tool in life, and in fiction, or else you’re going to be boring.
Jim Harrison in The Art of Fiction
Finally, I have completed a pretty tricky exercise that I had started about a couple of weeks back. It wasn't tricky because I wanted to move my website to a different platform. It was tricky because I wanted to do it cleanly. I wanted to retain as many things that worked well for me as I could. I didn't want to break much that was core.
So, after days of experiments and trial runs, and notes and list of reviewed to-dos, I've managed to switch to WordPress. I will note down why someday - one short, but big reason though is editing. I am tired of working custom solutions with Blot -- it's a great service, no doubt. But you need to love your files a lot. I am currently not in that phase.
Anyway, as intended, the core is retained. The links are (hopefully 🤞) not broken. #IndieWeb support was a must, have stitched that in. The option to switch to a dark theme was a must. A simple reading experience was a must. I've managed to get good writing experience too. So, times now to sit back and relax.
Do let me know if see anything that's not working well. I won't mind if you also let me know if everything's working fine.
I am planning to roll out some changes to my blog. I fear there would be many things that would be broken. Most importantly, soon, the RSS feed may not work. So if you are following me via my RSS feed, you might miss my posts. If you do, please resubscribe in a few days.
I find it extremely interesting that I have most things going for it now. I do not know what's even missing. Why can't I just make this my new home? Sure if can't be bad, right?
Let's look at the pros and cons. Rather this is a thought dump of sorts. No pros and cons, just some quick thoughts to compare experiences.
I am not yet sure how can I live without the quick draft. I need this option so bad. When I have a thought, I want to put it out.
“Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.” – Bob Dylan
Such a simple thought, yet so apt for the creative people all over. There are times when we get stuck and look for inspiration. There are times when we wish that finding help was simpler. With this newsletter, I intend to lend exactly that to the writers, a helping hand of sorts.
With every update, I will publish a curated list of the articles and tools that I believe every writer would find interesting and helpful. I will also feature one writer that inspires me to write more, along with some of their writing.
So, here’s the first update that dwells into a bit of writing history.
The evolution of writing from tokens to pictography, syllabary and alphabet illustrates the development of information processing to deal with larger amounts of data in ever greater abstraction.
Fascinating to learn about the evolution of the writing instruments, of the ways we share our thoughts through writing words. From Pictographs to Alphabets.
Did you know Pencils got their name from the English word meaning ‘brush’, breadcrumbs were first used as erasers and early highlighters were just “a glass bottle that held ink and a wool-felt wick”?
When I was actively writing fiction at Medium, I had read a few short stories from Lizella, and I’ve been a big fan of her imagination since then. In Lizella’s own words, her writing is “mostly free fiction, mostly female protagonists, and twisty endings”. And she absolutely nails it every single time. As a short excerpt of her thoughts, here’s how she describes humour.
Humor means different things to different people. For some, it’s a hearty belly laugh. For others, it’s slowly understanding that things are not what they seem in a way that makes you smile.
A Swiss-knife of a word processor. Google Docs has all the writing and organization features that any word editor, especially Microsoft Word, would have. But it excels at being an extremely well thought of online word processor. Save it in your Google Drive, have it accessible on every device. Find meanings of the words or even explore their usage right where you write. Finally, there is the unmatched collaboration functionality - shared drafts, get feedback.
A lot of people struggle to get started because they want a long term vision. The overall theme of everything they start and do. Charles Schulz (Peanuts) offered great advice: [Just do Monday's work. If it works, do it again on Tuesday. As you develop, the theme will take form.]
— Nathan Kontny (@natekontny) June 17, 2020
I am about to start an exciting project. I plan to publish a newsletter for writers — a writing toolkit, of sorts. With each short update, I will post a set of helpful/interesting links and tools to get you inspired to write more. I would love to get some feedback on what works and what doesn’t.
“Do one thing every day that scares you,” said Mary Schmich. I am shit-scared of getting myself into another side project. But the concept of this newsletter excites me and I want to take a go at it. So, do let me know if you would be ok to help me with your early and frank opinion.
The first issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard is ready and scheduled for delivery!
Another test post, from the WordPress editor. Things look absolutely fine from here. They aren't wrong.
Why does it matter how they look on the inside? Will I ever want to look there? Possibly not. Then why does it matter? Why can't I use this as my editor of choice?